Abstract:

Successfully completing higher education degrees requires a strong command of academic writing, particularly for drafting Bachelor's and Master's Theses. A fundamental component of this process is the appropriate integration of literature, avoidance of plagiarism, and adherence to established citation standards like the APA style. However, accurately applying APA formatting remains a significant difficulty for many students, frequently resulting in academic stress and delayed progress. To address this challenge, this study introduces an innovative educational intervention leveraging Instagram to help students master APA guidelines and mitigate plagiarism. An Instagram account, @apa_rte, was launched for this purpose and has grown to nearly 1000 followers, mostly from Spain and other Spanish-speaking nations.

The study utilized a quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test methodology to assess the impact of an educational intervention about APA guidelines (specifically focusing on citation practices, referencing, and plagiarism prevention) through Instagram. The sample comprised 460 university students who filled in our questionnaire both prior to and after the educational intervention: 200 participants in the experimental group who interacted with the Instagram profile, and a control group of 260 non-participants. Participants were drawn from undergraduate and postgraduate programs across three Spanish universities. The academic backgrounds of the sample were primarily Psychology (55.1%) and Education (41.7%). Over a 20-week period, the experimental group engaged with APA-focused content and interactive exercises on Instagram. Before and after this period, both cohorts completed questionnaires evaluating their knowledge of APA rules, academic writing self-efficacy, task-induced anxiety, and views on utilizing Instagram for academic purposes. The experimental group additionally provided feedback on their motivation for participating in the educational intervention. The results revealed that the educational intervention through Instagram was effective. The experimental group demonstrated a statistically significant increase in both APA knowledge (p < .001) and confidence in applying these rules to academic writing (p < .001). Furthermore, their extrinsic motivation for participating in the educational intervention decreased (p = .002). Task anxiety and the perceived educational utility of Instagram remained stable in this group throughout the intervention. Conversely, the control group exhibited no significant improvement in APA proficiency after the intervention. Instead, over the 20 weeks, their anxiety levels (p < .001) and self-efficacy (p = .002) significantly increased. These findings confirm the appeal and reach of Instagram as a pedagogical resource. The social media-based educational intervention successfully nurtured key academic writing skills, proving to be a valuable asset in university education.

Acknowledgments:
This research received support from the Universidad de Zaragoza through the PIIDUZ_3 “De Referencia” grants (2025/5794 and 2025/5800).

Keywords:

Pedagogical innovation, APA formatting, academic literacy, higher education, social networks.